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"GRUMPIER OLD MEN"
(1995) (Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau) (PG-13)

Alcohol/
Drugs
Blood/Gore Disrespectful/
Bad Attitude
Frightening/
Tense Scenes
Guns/
Weapons
Moderate None Moderate None *Minor
Imitative
Behavior
Jump
Scenes
Music
(Scary/Tense)
Music
(Inappropriate)
Profanity
Moderate None None None Moderate
Sex/
Nudity
Smoking Tense Family
Scenes
Topics To
Talk About
Violence
Moderate Mild Mild Minor Mild


QUICK TAKE:
Two old friends continue their bickering at each other and at a newcomer who plans on converting their beloved bate shop into an Italian restaurant.
PLOT:
Max Goldman (WALTER MATTHAU) and John Gustafson (JACK LEMMON), two friends who love to bicker and fight with each other, return in this sequel to "Grumpy Old Men." John is newly married to Ariel (ANN-MARGRET), and his daughter Melanie (DARYL HANNAH) is engaged to Max's son, Jacob (KEVIN POLLACK). While not planning their kids' marriage or shooting the breeze with John's cantankerous father, Pops (BURGESS MEREDITH), the two must contend with newcomer Maria (SOPHIA LOREN). She has them all in a dither as she plans on turning their beloved old bait shop into a trendy Italian restaurant. As they attempt to thwart her plans, Max starts to fall for her. From then on the restaurant sabotage, the wedding and the budding romance continue in the little town of Wabasha, Minnesota.
WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
Probably not. There isn't anyone under 30 in this movie, and Matthau and Lemmon's antics probably won't be funny to the under twenty crowd.
WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13
For salty language and innuendos.
CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
  • WALTER MATTHAU and JACK LEMMON are two grumbling, arguing characters who love to play practical jokes on each other, but deep down really care for one another. ANN-MARGRET and SOPHIA LOREN play the loves of the men's lives. The women are strong willed, passionate, and independent.
  • CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

    HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE


    OUR TAKE: 6 out of 10
    While not as funny as the original, this sequel still has some funny moments, including a reprisal of hilarious out takes during the credit roll at the end (actually it's the funniest stuff in the movie). The performances are good all around and it's still fun to watch Matthau and Lemmon teamed up again. The most pleasure comes from watching Burgess Meredith as the cranky, lecherous old man who is given the funniest lines in the movie. Margaret and Loren are as beautiful as ever and chemistry between them and their "other halves" works very well for the film. We give the movie a 6 out of 10.
    OUR WORD TO PARENTS
    The most objectionable thing in the movie is all of the sexual innuendo that flies throughout the movie (including many lines from Pops). While it's nothing really horrible, some parents may object to younger ears hearing them and wondering what the actors are talking about. There's also a lot of practical jokes played which kids may pick up on and try to imitate or create new ones of their own.

    ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE
  • Pops drinks beer throughout the movie.
  • Pops drinking wine at a restaurant along with Maria and her mom.
  • Max and John are seen in a bar drinking beer.
  • Pops and Maria's mom drink wine.
  • John and Maria drink grappa (a liquor) when he visits her to apologize. Later he's seen a bit tipsy and passes out at her place.
  • Max gives Jacob a beer in the middle of the day.
  • Max shows up with a box of wine at Maria's and later they are seen drinking wine.
  • People drink beer at an Oktoberfest festival.
  • Max and John decide to get drunk together after Pops' funeral.
  • Max and Jacob drink beer on Halloween night.
  • BLOOD/ GORE
  • None.
  • DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE
  • Max uses his video camera to record John posing as a nude model for Ariel and later plays it back at the local Sears.
  • Max and John send a guinea pig into Maria's restaurant right when the health inspector is there.
  • Max and John try to thwart Maria's restaurant opening. They change her paint color while she's painting, they place a condemned sign on her place, they close the road to the restaurant and place a quarantine sign on her door.
  • Max and John always knock over the garbage cans as they park at Maria's place.
  • Jacob and Melanie break up after he asks her, "If you're so smart, how come you've been divorced before?" She then calls off the wedding and the dads then call off their friendship after they fight about which kid is right.
  • Max and John play practical jokes on each other including one cutting the other's fishing net, loosening the motor on a boat, and John puts a cat in Max's car that claws the seats.
  • Max buys the meanest dog he can find and then lets it chase John's cat through his house causing some property damage.
  • When Max won't let John into his house and he complains that it's cold, Max gives him a box of matches and says, "Here, set yourself on fire."
  • Late on the way to a wedding they're in, Max and John stop at the local pond to try and catch the local fish legend.
  • FRIGHTENING/TENSE SCENES
  • None.
  • GUNS/WEAPONS
  • Pops tells his great granddaughter his version of Goldilocks and the three bears where Goldilocks has a semiautomatic remington with a scope that takes care of the bears.
  • IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR
  • Max and John play practical jokes on each other including one cutting the other's fishing net, loosening the motor on a boat, and John puts a cat in Max's car that claws the seats.
  • When Max won't let John into his house and he complains that it's cold, Max gives him a box of matches and says, "Here, set yourself on fire."
  • Max gives John the "Kiss my ass" symbol.
  • John drives to the church like a madman, running through stop signs and speeding because they're late.
  • Phrases: "Bastard," "Butt Ugly," "Bitch," "Moron," "Putz," "Nag," "Holy Molly," "Slut," "Shut up," "Screwed up," "Fart," "Bonehead," and "D*ckhead."
  • Phrase: "You're meaner than a dog sh*tting tacks."
  • Phrase: "She's just a pig head Italian witch with piss and vinegar running through her veins."
  • Phrase: "If my dog was as ugly as you, I'd shave his ass and teach him to walk backwards.
  • Phrase: "You can wish in one hand and crap in another and see which one gets filled first."
  • Phrase: "Do you have a fart in your brain?"
  • JUMP SCENES
  • None.
  • MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)
  • None.
  • MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)
  • The opening blues song contains the lyrics "I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal you," and "I'll kill you just for fun and the birds can have you when I'm done."
  • PROFANITY
  • 2 "f" words are bleeped out during the final credits but you can tell what's being said. Otherwise there's 1 "s" word, 13 damns, 9 hells, 5 "ass" words, 3 craps, 3 slang terms for male genitalia (the "d" word), and 2 uses each of "God damn," "Jesus Christ," and "For God's sake," and 1 use each of "Judas Priest," "By God," and "God," as exclamations.
  • SEX/NUDITY
  • Melanie and Jacob are seen in bed together in the morning but they are only engaged to be married.
  • Ariel is sculpting and using John as her nude model, but nothing "private" is seen.
  • Innuendo: Maria's mom asks Pops what Hawaiian island he's been to and he replies with a string of words that when run together might sound like a Hawaiian island. (He does this once in the movie and then many times in the out takes at the end) They include:
  • "Come on I wanna lay you," "I kinda like a poke ya," "You lick a dickee," "I'm a kinda kinky," and "Wanna peek a peepee?"
  • Maria comes in wearing a sexy, low cut, red dress that draws all of the men's attention. She pushes her breasts up, exposing even more cleavage. She then cools herself off with ice that melts and the water runs down into her cleavage. (She does this to try to drive Max crazy)
  • Phrase: "You couldn't catch crabs from a ten-dollar hooker."
  • Innuendo: Pops tells Maria's mom the following:
  • "I'll show you my cannelloni if you show me yours," "What do you say we go back to my place and I'll show you my spicy, peppy pepperoni," "What do you say we go back to my house and I'll show you my man-sized manicotti," "I'll show you my beefy bologna... my bony macaroni... my fatty alfredo... my hard salami."
  • Ariel and Max go to the restaurant where they find John coming out of the shower in Maria's bathrobe. They get the wrong idea and Ariel accuses Maria of having sex with John.
  • It's implied that Pops and Maria's mom slept together.
  • Maria says (referring to a caught fish), "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Max says "It's not the size that matters," and she replies "Are we still talking about your fish?"
  • Max rehearses a line of innuendo he's going to tell Maria: "Maria there may be lots of fish in the sea, but you're the only one I want to mount above my fireplace."
  • Max tells Maria that worms have both male and female sexual organs.
  • Max and Maria passionately kiss, and Maria says it's been a while since she's been with a man. Max says "Me too."
  • Max tells John that he was the gangster of love to which John replies "Was it more of a hold up than a stick up?"
  • It's implied that Max and Maria had sex and John later tells Max, "I liked you better before you were getting any."
  • SMOKING
  • Pops smokes occasionally cigarettes.
  • TENSE FAMILY SCENES
  • Ariel kicks John out of their house after he won't apologize to Maria.
  • Jacob and Melanie break up after he asks her, "If you're so smart, how come you've been divorced before?" She then calls off the wedding and the dads then call off their friendship after they fight about which kid is right.
  • John finds Pop dead (from old age), there's a funeral, and then they throw his ashes into the lake.
  • Maria admits that she's been married five times.
  • TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT
  • Max, trying to act like he isn't attracted to Maria, tells Jacob that she might be a lesbian. Jacob tells Max that he doesn't think Max has ever seen one, but Max says he has. On Geraldo.
  • VIOLENCE
  • Max and John crash their boats into each other on purpose several times.
  • Maria's mom tries to hit Max with a boat oar when he comes into their place at the beginning. She then threatens to whack his head "like a melon."
  • Maria pours spaghetti sauce on Max and John's heads after they put a guinea pig into her restaurant to ruin her restaurant's health inspection.
  • Ariel, realizing that John didn't stay with Max and was last seen going to Maria's, says she's going to kill him when she finds him.
  • Ariel and Max go to the restaurant where they find John coming out of the shower in Maria's bathrobe. Max goes after John with a salami accusing him of always stealing his women.
  • Max lets his dog lose which then chases John's cat through the house and causes furniture and sculpture damage in John's house.
  • Max and John joust with fishing poles.
  • Maria's mom threatens Max with a bat when he shows up to talk to Maria.



  • Reviewed July 12, 1996

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